Education, airport services could be hit by sequester cuts

Now that the president and Congress are unable to restructure the current budget impasse, county residents are going to the effects of the sequester cuts in a variety of ways.

One of the toughest to absorb could be the loss of $631,000 of federal money — about 5 percent of the overall budget — by the St. Johns County School District.

While the crunch won’t be felt until the 2013-14 school year, the absence of funds from Washington will hurt because a big chunk of the money goes to Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), $311,000, and Title I aid for schools with a high percentage of poor students, $174,000.

“It’s taking away money from students who need it most,” said Mike Degutis, the chief financial officer for the school district.

If it becomes clear that those funds will not be restored, the local school board will have to decide whether to attempt to fund the programs with local money or curtail services.

Superintendent Joseph Joyner said school district employees need to know soon whether they are going to have the federal money.

“The disappointing part of that is it hits the most vulnerable population of students,” he said. “I hope some resolution can be made to sort of hold the education part of (budget cuts) harmless.”

Gov. Rick Scott has voiced his disapproval of the cuts and their impact on the Florida National Guard.

The Florida National Guard is bracing for the prospect of 986 of its federal employees being forced to take furloughs one day a week for 22 weeks. Of those workers, 776 are in Northeast Florida, which has the highest concentration of National Guard activity in the state.

If furloughs occur, National Guard employees would stay home from work one day a week and take a corresponding 20-percent pay cut.

Another tangible example of the sequester cuts involves the Northeast Florida Regional Airport.

NFRA Executive Director Ed Wuellner said that if the cuts are ultimately implemented, many contract air traffic control towers like the one at the St. Augustine airport will be closed.

Although he hasn’t received official confirmation yet, Wuellner said St. Augustine is on the list to be closed — with closings scheduled for April 1 or April 7.

That would impact the area in several ways. First, it would mean layoffs for 10 local controllers, but it would also have an effect on flight schools here.

Currently, the airport is on pace to have 130,000 takeoffs and landings this year, Wuellner said. Without a manned control tower, it’s unlikely that pilots will feel comfortable with that much activity.

“The impact to air safety and other airport-related businesses and users is more abstract but equally significant,” Wuellner said in an email. “Our flight schools rely on the tower to assure separation between aircraft in the immediate airport environment. … the potential for severely compromised safety is very real.

“Pilots will be forced back to ‘see and avoid’ rules and are forced to work it out among themselves as they try to use the airport.”

Wuellner is frank in his assessment of the damage the sequester cuts would do to the national economy.

“Bottom line — closing our tower will jeopardize the safety and efficiency of our airport and will certainly mean the significant loss of jobs in our community,” Wuellner said. “DOT and FAA must find other savings before shutting down almost 40 percent of all control towers nationwide.”

Another area of concern is the National Park Service, which will be taking a hit of $110 million in the sequester cuts.

Locally, the Castillo de San Marcos and Fort Matanzas are both operated by the National Park Service.

Unless things change dramatically, Jon Burpee, chief of interpretation and education at the Castillo, said visitor services will be somewhat affected. However, he said there are no plans to furlough any of the 65 employees (including part-time workers) or change business hours.

“There will be effects,” Burpee said. “We are in slightly different situation than other parks in that we do have a substantial number of visitors who come to our parks.”

With about 700,000 visitors to the Castillo de San Marcos last year, one of St. Augustine’s premier attractions generates a healthy amount of revenue. Also, the monument and nature areas at Fort Matanzas had about 500,000 visitors in 2012.

Neither park is expected to close. Instead, Burpee said the parks will cut back in other ways. For instance, he will no longer be able to offer summer night walks. And he’ll have to put a freeze on most staff training opportunities.

“We’re trying to figure out how to do more with less,” he said. “We’ll do our best to (offer) the fine programs our staff does every day.

“We are here for two reasons: to preserve this place forever and to share this with as many people as possible.”

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Title 1

Title I, Part A (Title I) of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, as amended (ESEA) provides financial assistance to local educational agencies (LEAs) and schools with high numbers or high percentages of children from low-income families to help ensure that all children meet challenging state academic standards. Federal funds are currently allocated through four statutory formulas that are based primarily on census poverty estimates and the cost of education in each state.

Source: U.S. Dept. of Education

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IDEA

The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) is a law ensuring services to children with disabilities throughout the nation. IDEA governs how states and public agencies provide early intervention, special education and related services to more than 6.5 million eligible infants, toddlers, children and youth with disabilities.

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Any cuts to the Obama cell phones? No? Now go figure. Is that more important than the National Guard? Of course it is that's his base voters. Careful what you wish for. Don't think Obama did not get exactly what he wanted.

What percentage of St. Johns County residents actually use the St. Augustine Airport at all? Why do I find myself having to take frequent trips to Jacksonville Airport? What am I missing here?

I don't believe that people in the public sector even realize how much many of us in the private sector have had to sacrifice over the past four years--healthcare, pension contributions, and, in many cases, our jobs themselves, and I am speaking of my own personal experience here.

The majority of Americans support higher taxes on millionaires as part of a balanced plan to reduce the deficit. But interestingly, you don't hear anything now about closing loopholes for corporations who continue to evade billions in taxes through the use of (legal) accounting tricks, hiding money offshore, and bribing lawmakers to make sure that that corporations' control of Congress remains absolute - that's completely off the radar screen (if there still is a radar screen after the sequester). That's all drowned out by the deficit hysteria.

We have re-framed the issue, and that is reflected by the comments here and the thumbs down that will appear on this comment. The noise is all about how seniors are stealing the country's future, how Obama's "bluff has been called", how "Americans (only) know Washington has a spending problem", and denial that the sequestration cuts will have any meaningful impact on the economy.

Fortunately there is a world outside of this backwater. Americans in general don't agree with any of this drivel, and the Republican propaganda machine is only successful in driving their pickup deeper off into the ditch. People that can still think know that the real issue here is delaying further tax increases on the wealthy (which are inevitable), and shielding corporate America from paying their fair share as long as possible, even if it wrecks the safety net, education, the infrastructure (air traffic control), the economy, and the country's future in the process. And they know the deficit is just a dodge, a distraction.

The locals' new revolutionary diet is to lose weight by cutting their head off.